Conventionally, there was proposed a wide variety of vehicle body structures one of which is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The vehicle body structure comprises a rear floor panel 1 and a pair of rear wheel housings 2 respectively having inner and outer housing half portions 3 and 4, the formers of which are welded to the both lateral ends of the rear floor panel 1. Each of rear wheel housings 2 further comprises inner and outer flange portions 5 and 6 respectively extending radially outwardly from the outer circumferences of the housing half portions 3 and 4. The inner and outer flange portions 5 and 6 are welded to each other so as to form in combination the rear wheel housings 2 respectively in conjunction with the inner and outer housing half portions 3 and 4, so that the rear wheel housings 2 can partially accommodate therewithin respective rear road wheels, not shown, as in a well known manner. As will be best seen in FIG. 2, the inner flange portions 5 respectively have upper sections which extend over the outermost ends of the outer flange portions 6 and to which a pair of rear pillar inner panels 7 are welded at their lower end portions, respectively. The lower portions of the rear pillar inner panels 7 are parallel with and spaced apart from each other by a distance L1 which is determined in such a manner as to meet the requirement of a vehicle having a certain width, so that the upper sections of the inner flange portions 5 are parallel with and spaced apart from each other by a distance L2 approximately equal to the distance L1. Reference numeral 8 designates a pair of side sills each of which has inner and outer side sill half portions 9 and 10, the former of which is welded to the lateral end of the rear floor panel 1. Each of the side sills 8 further has inner and outer flange portions 11 and 12 respectively extending upwardly from the upper ends of the side sill half portions 9 and 10 and welded to each other for forming in combination the side sill 8 in conjunction with the inner and outer side sill half portions 9 and 10.
In FIG. 3, a vehicle body structure is shown and used for a vehicle having another width which is greater than that of the vehicle body structure described hereinbefore, in which structural components similar to those forming part of the vehicle body structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are designated by like reference numerals. The vehicle body structure comprises a pair of inner housing half portions 13 respectively welded to the both lateral ends of the rear floor panel 1, a pair of outer housing half portions 14 arranged laterally outwardly of the inner housing half portions 13, respectively, a pair of inner flange portions 15 extending radially outwardly from the outer circumferences of the inner housing half portions 13, and a pair of outer flange portions 16 extending radially outwardly from the outer circumferences of the outer housing half portions 14 and welded to the inner flage portions 15, respectively. The vehicle body structure shown in FIG. 3 further comprises a pair of rear pillar inner panels 17 which are welded to the upper sections of the inner flange portions 13, respectively, as in the case of the vehicle body structure shown in FIG. 2 and which are parallel with and spaced apart from each other by a distance L3 greater than the distance L1. The upper sections of the inner flange portions 13 are spaced apart from each other by a distance L4 greater than the distance L2.
From comparison of the vehicle body structures as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, it will be understood that the inner housing half portion 3 has a width W1 different from the width W2 of the inner housing half portion 13 and that the outer housing half portion 4 has a width W3 different from the width W4 of the outer housing half portion 14. This results from the reason that the widths W1 and W3 should be respectively varied to the widths W2 and W4 when the didtance L4 is varied from the distance L2 in accordance with the variation of the vehicle widths. For this reason, it is neceassary to produce not only a number of outer housing half portions 4 and 14 with different widths W3 and W4 but also a number of inner housing half portions 3 and 13 with different widths W1 and W2. It is therefore required to machine many different types of dies for producing the inner housing half portions 3 and 13 and the outer housing half portions 4 and 14 when the vehicles with different widths are manufactured. This requires a considerable cost as well as excessive time and labour for storing these housing half portions.
This invention contemplates elimination of these drawbacks inherent in the conventional vehicle body structure and provision of the improvement of the vehicle body structure which requires only one type or configuration of inner housing half portion to manufacture vehicles even if the vehicles are different in lateral width from one another.